Last week was my first full week back to work. I'm going to say it. I enjoy being back to work. I love being a teacher, I love to socialize with friends, and I love coming home to my babies who run up to me and love me and hug me. They seem to love me more when I'm not home 24/7 with them..haha!
We have also been using Reagan's math journals. Her ones for February are spot on for what we have been working on. I love using notebooks in math - quick simple checks!
I had a group of kids doing the multiples of 10 with my February cards. You can get the cards {HERE} for free.
Our phonics skill this week was long u with silent e. So we used some activities from my Long U pack and my Real and Nonsense Pack. I posted about all my Real and Nonsense packs {HERE} if you want to check out what's in there.
And then we started really working on writing using topic sentences, details and conclusion sentences. We came up with the topic sentence as a group and then we brainstormed details to go with the topic sentence. They had to choose two of them to write out as sentences. Then we came up with the conclusion sentence together. After they wrote out their neat copy, they took a green crayon to underline the topic, the yellow crayon to underline their details and the red to underline the conclusion.
After they finished their writing, they got to do their craft!
I don't have a bulletin board in my hallway (boo!) but my daughter's VPK school has lots of them.. and there are always some great BBs there...and this one is just so cute and creative! I love it! I can't do the religious part at my school, but I love the idea!
On another note... I had my doTerra order come in the mail today! I love it! I am quite addicted to oils. I use them EVERY day.
I wish I could diffuse them at school. Can you diffuse oils at your school??
If you're interested in using oils, you can check out my doTerra site {HERE}.
One of the skills that I really want my kids to be able to do is sound out nonsense words. To me, this is how I know they really know their phonics sounds and rules.
I do this in my whole group and in my centers a lot. And our school (and district) actually does a school-wide intervention (and enrichment) time where we divvy the kids up by what phonics skill they are on. When I have a phonics group (as opposed to a Phonemic Awareness), I do a lot of the real vs. nonsense words for the skill. The first phonics group is CVC... depending on the group, I spend a week on each vowel. Or sometimes I can just do a quick review and do a mixed CVC week of lessons. I usually just made some lessons here and there to do with my kids.
Well, I finally put them all together. Here's what's included in all 6 CVC packs
(yes, I know there are only 5 vowels...lol. Each vowel has its own pack and then there's a mixed CVC)
First, there are tons of word cards to use throughout the pack in different ways. You can obviously sort them, but there are tons of other ways you can use them. Plus, I just like have a pile of words to be able to use so I don't have to think of words on the spot. I don't know why, but thinking of nonsense words "just like that" sometimes is tricky for me. So weird! lol
Then there are student sorting activities. You can do the sort on a separate paper like this...
Or in a flap-foldable like this. Mix it up each week to make it a little fun.
Then there are a lot of printables to do. This is a Highlight and Write
This one is always a favorite because they love to roll the word cubes. There are a few different cubes to make the center stretch to a few weeks.
I like to use the picture cube dice and just write the onsets and rimes on index cards and put them in the "sleeves"
Another dice activity, but with an actual dice. I LOVE to dice activities in my class. I have a post written on all kinds of dice activities I like to do. You can check it out {HERE}.
This one is where they have to walk around the room to find the word cards. They are numbered and they have to put them on the corresponding line and then decide if the words are real or nonsense. This activity can be differentiated.. there is a page that has sentence lines for them to write sentences and there's a version that doesn't have any lines for writing out sentences.
This one you just put word cards around the room (like the ones that you can sort)
There are more activities included in each pack, but I wanted to show you these, which my kids do a lot during centers and RTI time.
Here is a better look at what's included... this is what's in the MIXED CVC pack, but all the packs have the same activities, just changed for that specific skill.
You can buy the packs separately, or but the bundle and save!
Monday, I had a meeting during my planning, interims were to go out that day but the copiers were down, and I had a Dr. appointment after school and on the way home I got stock on the interstate because of an accident for thirty minutes.
Tuesday is our faculty meeting day after school, so I don't usually get home until late anyway.
Wednesday?? I don't remember Wednesday. Oh.. wait! I went to see my brother and his wife and my nephew. I just happen to have nothing that day and Autumn asked if she could see her baby cousin. Sure.
Thursday, we had Math Night that I had to be at and I didn't get home until 8:00 that day.
Friday? One CRAZY day...but it was a great day! Apple Day/Week was a success and I can't wait to show it to you! OH, and I was home by 3:30 and IN my pajamas on the couch. Yep.
I'm overly exhausted right now. September is brutal.
Anyway... no time to do my visual plans, but I did want to tell you a little bit of what we'll be doing.
We're going to be doing short vowel review with words that end in -ck. So I updated my /k/ pack. If you already bought it, make sure you download it again.
Our thematic poem for the week to put in our journal is on Firefighters. You can read about my poetry journals {HERE}. You know I'd be in trouble if I didn't do a fire safety week! I always try to get my husband to come in to my classroom with his gear and do a little demonstration, but I never know if it's going to work out or not. We'll see if it happens this year or not!
Anyway, I found a freebie poem from one of the first blogs I found many years ago, Just 4 Teachers, that I turned into a poetry journal and centers activity. Click the picture to download. We're going to do the poem on Monday morning and then it will be one of their centers throughout the week.
Another center they'll be doing this week is the vowel and consonant addition. I've had this activity in my centers FOREVER, but I've copied them so many times that they start to look blurry. So I finally just made my own so that it was actually "pretty" and I could print originals whenever I wanted. The old version was with ewwy fonts and no clip art. Not pretty. lol. I like functional....and pretty! haha It's the problem with being a clip art addict, I guess. Click the picture to download the freebie.
Some more of my centers will be coming from a few different packs.... my October version of my Label It!
And my October CCS center packs. I had the chance to introduce math centers last week with all of our apple fun, and I really liked it! We only had like 15 minutes to do them.... so I can only do one quick one, but it was enough time for me to walk around to get an idea of who needed help and which concepts I needed to spend more time on.
Also in Math, I'll be doing a "round up" of all the addition strategies I've been teaching them. I'll be doing some activities from my Addition Strategies pack. This was on of the first things I made a few years ago. I'm adding more activities to the pack as the week goes! By next weekend, I'll have the pack updated... so if you already bought it, be on the look out for a FB shout that I've uploaded the new version. If you haven't bought it yet, you might want to get it now before the price goes up!
I have a few new ideas I want to implement in our routines. But before I share them with you, I want to make sure they're going to work... or IF I even get to them. We start our school wide intervention next week. This eats up about 45 minutes of my already too-short of a day. So, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it all in.
Insert sad face. I really miss time. I wish I had more if. For so many reasons.
Something I have always done and LOVED to do is poetry journals. I'm sure it's nothing new to you. I know TONS of people do them. I'm not very creative in coming up with this idea, lol! But I wanted to show you how I use them.
I've posted before on how I like to use poetry journals... but that was about a year ago, and not only have I moved to a different grade, I've also changed a little in how I do things. Check out those posts {HERE} and {HERE}. In first grade, I still do a lot of the same things, but I've revamped it so it's more appropriate.
I don't use anything fancy. I just use a spiral or composition book. I just printed up labels that had a picture on it that I could reference it for a while until the kids got to know the word.
So, here's how I do it.
First, each month we take time out of our day to color our month cover page. I set the timer for 10 minutes for the cover and 5 minutes for the Table of Contents. Then we glue them in.
I use spirals or composition books for our poetry journals, but you can just use a 3-prong folder or a small 1-inch binder! If you use a spiral or composition notebook, I have a little trick for you when you print off the pages... shrink them so they fit! When you go to print them, select custom scale and print them at 85%. That's the size that will fit notebooks. Otherwise, you can just print and go if you are just using a folder or binder!
I really don't have a creative bone in my body, when it comes to writing poetry...so that's when I search high and low!
I actually have a weekly/daily schedule I like to keep with each week for the poems. I only do this with my phonics poems though. We do all kinds of other poems throughout time too, but I only do this schedule with the phonics poems.
Monday, I'll read the poem from the chart paper. If the poem I choose has missing letters in it (like this one did), then we'll discuss what those letters are. Then, I'll have them read with me.
Tuesday, we'll read it again off the chart paper, and highlight skill words.
This day, I'll give them their own copy and they can highlight the words on their own poem.
I like to retype them so that they can put them in their poetry journals.
Wednesday, we'll read it from the chart paper again, this time finding any of the sight words from our week (or previous sight words) and they underline them (on my poem). Then we discuss the phonics skill words some more. They go back to their seats and write out the highlighted skill words. Then they partner read it.
On Thursday, we come back to the poem on the chart paper and reread. This time, we focus on punctuation...knowing how to read and when to stop. We also figure out what the word family is. This week we worked with -in and -it (well, this week in the pictures), so we came up with more words that would go with those word families.
AND, sometimes, if we have time, on Thursday, we will do a poem scramble where they have to work with their group to unscramble the poem. This hits so many levels... sight word recognition, fluency, phonics, team work! They don't even know it! I make it a little game to see which group can finish first. They HAVE to bring their own poems to use as a reference, so that they get used to going back into the "story" to find the answer.
I copy 4-5 different sets, all on different color paper and laminate them, that way they last year to year and I don't have to copy them every year!
Then, the next week, this usually goes into a center as a review.
Then, on Fridays, we read it one last time... I usually have them pick a "Read It" card where we can read it in fun and silly ways. Then we head back to our seats and I have them illustrate on the side-by-side page what the poem is talking about. My rule is that they have to label at least 2 words in their picture. Can they label more? PLEASE! But I want at least two highlighted words from their poem in labeled in the picture.
Here are some examples of finished products from our journals so far.
Now, I said that I like to use other kinds of poems too...so if they are just fun poems, like thematic ones, we usually just read them a few times and illustrate them (I always have them illustrate them AND label a few words! - helps with visualizing). I don't spend a whole lot of time on them. Sometimes, we don't even have time to color our illustration.
When September came, we were putting in our poem and the kids reminded me that I hadn't given them their September cover yet. HA! Woops on me. Oh well, we just pretended that the poem for that day was in August. lol
I decided that this was one of those things that I would keep forgetting to copy them off, so when I did copy them, I went ahead and did the whole year. So now I don't have to remember to print them! I just have to remember where I put them - and that might be even harder! haha!
If you want the covers and table of contents, click on the picture below for the freebie!
I also typed up my poem schedule and put it in a PDF if you want that. Click the picture below!
Hope this gives you some good ideas on what to do for poetry and phonics!
Posts
